Hertford Regional College

A mind-bending journey into Wonderland ‘Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser’ exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, which explores the varied and challenging artwork, products, installations, and productions that have been based on the original novel ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, written by Lewis Carroll.

Inspired by a brilliant new exhibition, the UAL Diploma (Level 2) Fashion Business and Retail students from Hertford Regional College, were tasked with creating their own printed design for use to produce a range of accessories to put on sale at the college Pop Up Shop at the Bishop’s Stortford Tourist Information Centre. The theme allowed students to have creative freedom through exploring brand collaborations, combining their own personalities with the Alice brand to create their own brand collaboration.

As part of this project, the students explored the roles and responsibilities in the fashion retail environments and partook in group workshops to generate initial ideas and individually explored design concepts, undertook market research, developed their brands, created promotional materials, explored merchandise handling, produced display packaging and marketed their final product to the point of sale.

For further information about the course check out the link UAL Level 2 Fashion Business and Retail and view our Instagram to see more of our Students’ creative work @fbr_hrc

Gianfranco Castagna Programme Manager UAL Level 2 Fashion Business and Retail gcastagna@hrc.ac.uk

Hertford Regional College

The UAL Extended Diploma (Level 3) Fashion students at Hertford Regional College were given fashion forecast themes to research during their Summer vacation. Upon their return in September 2021 they were asked to use their fashion forecast theme as a starting point for their research into ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and develop a range of fashion design ideas, exploring space, time and scale and the edge of reality!

The students visited the ‘Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser’ exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum to explore the story’s origins, adaptation and reinventions and consider how fashion designers have been inspired by the impact and legacy of this story, which is over 150 years old! Students researched the various versions of the story through books, illustrations, films, fashion and photography.

From this research, students developed fashion design ideas for costumes for their chosen character in a scene from Alice in Wonderland. Through this process, students were able to develop their skills in researching, designing, illustrating, fabric awareness, pattern and garment production and experimenting with a range of techniques in order to make their final costumes. They considered the characters and their personalities, gender, target audience and the ethos of the story and how this could be portrayed throughout their own concepts, giving this a new, contemporary twist.

Students then considered the styling of their costumes and collaborated with UAL Extended Diploma (Level 3) Visual Merchandising and Photography students to bring their costumes to life within the Alice in Wonderland setting. The results were both exciting and creative and give a fascinating new dimension to the story.

For further information about the course check out the link UAL Level 3 Art & Design (Fashion)

Adel Zanre Programme Manager UAL Level 3 Art & Design (Fashion) azanre@hrc.ac.uk

Hertford Regional College

Lewis Carroll’s novel ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ inspired students from Hertford Regional College, who collaborated across the UAL (Level 3) Visual Merchandising, Fashion and Photography pathways to create four fabulous conceptual window displays for Christmas 2021. The students were lucky enough to undertake a visit to the Victoria and Albert exhibition ‘Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser’ in South Kensington which was a huge kickstart to the project.

The UAL (Level 3) Visual Merchandising students worked in teams of first and second years, to design and make the props and backdrops in four displays, each representing a scene from Alice In Wonderland, which they installed in purpose-built glazed windows situated in the college’s David Gentleman Gallery. The scenes consisted of ‘Mushroom Land’, ‘The Mad Hatters Tea Party’, ‘The Queens Garden’, and finally ‘The Battle Scene’. The modern interpretations were supported by selected costume designs made by the UAL (Level 3) Extended Diploma Fashion students, who responded to the novel, creating garments inspired by the various characters and scenes.

As part of the course, the Visual Merchandising students explore stage set design as the ‘next size up’ from window display using fashion styling which played a big part in the install, linking the many skills needed for a successful visual merchandising scheme.

For further information about the course check out the link UAL Level 3 Art & Design (Visual Merchandising and Brand Promotion) and view our Instagram to see more of our students’ work @visualmerchandisinghrc

Brooke Riddle Programme Manager UAL Level 3 Art & Design (Visual Merchandising and Brand Promotion) briddle@hrc.ac.uk Mushroom Land

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

Hertford Regional College

The Bishop’s Stortford Tourist Information Centre was once again transformed for Christmas as part of a client-based live brief undertaken by the students on the Level 4 Foundation Degree in Visual Merchandising at Hertford Regional College, a programme validated by University of Hertfordshire.

Students undertook a site visit in October and were briefed by the Tourist Information Centre staff who asked for a window display that reflected Bishop’s Stortford as a town, used sustainable materials in its construction, was able to accommodate centre branded merchandise as well as items from the Christmas Pop Up Shop that would be installed along with the window display.

Students worked on concepts to meet the brief and presented these to the client. The client selected a concept by Neve Stanley who proposed, as a centre piece, a Christmas tree made from stacked crates and boxes along with a signpost highlighting key attractions in Bishop’s Stortford. Neve suggested the inclusion of iconic buildings within the town as a cut-out skyline. The client chose this design as it considered the presentation of merchandise and provided a strong ‘Bishop’s Stortford’ message.

The Visual Merchandising students worked as a team to create Neve’s concept and were mindful throughout to use existing and sustainable materials to create the props. At the beginning of December, a small team made the magic happen and installed the window. Using the stepped structure already in the window students added the cut-out skyline with twinkling lights, piled the crates and boxes and positioned the signpost. The window was then heavily merchandised with ‘all things Christmas’ and finished with a generous sprinkling of snow.

The Bishop’s Stortford Tourist Information Centre was delighted to have yet another original and festive window for the Christmas season. The project gave the students the opportunity of first-hand experience in completing a client driven project from beginning to end and highlighted the careful pre-planning and hard work that goes into every successful professional installation.

See our Instagram to view our students’ amazing work at Hertford Regional College Foundation Degree Creative Enterprise @creative_enterprise_hub For further information about the course check out the link Foundation Degree Visual Merchandising

Liliana Scibetta Programme Manager Foundation Degree Creative Enterprise Visual Merchandising Pathway (in association with University of Hertfordshire) lscibetta@hrc.ac.uk